Victory, Condos and Murray - PLUS Call for Volunteers

Written by: Katherine Wallace on Jul 26, 2006 5:48 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Progressive Democrats of Somerville

Below are the minutes from our meeting on Tuesday July 25 as written by our Secretary Paula Stuart.

Thanks to our guests we had a lively discussion on Mass Victory 06 - the push to elect a Democratic Governor in November, the proposed Condo Ordinance changes and learned more about Lt. Gov Candidate Tim Murray.

We did hold an endorsement vote for Lt. Governor, but because we have three fine Democratic candidates running any one of which we would be proud to support, the vote was not to endorse in this race. Hey, the Republicans don't even have one fine candidate! We are lucky.

Please make special note of the VICTORY 06 events on Saturday July 29. Come out and Support Joe Beckman at his Breakfast and Canvass and ME Katie Wallace at the Phone Bank. Please RSVP if possible. If you don't RSVP, you can still come by and volunteer. If I promise you fun can I get you to turn up? Details are below.

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Katie Wallace
Chairperson
Progressive Democrats of Somerville

katewallace@att.net

Democracy Demands Participation!
www.pdsomerville.org/PDS/...

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF SOMERVILLE
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
July 25, 2006



M I N U T E S



The July 25th General Meeting of PDS was held at the VNA on Lowell Street. Chair Katie Wallace opened the meeting with introductions. PDS welcomed three guests including Joe O'Brien (Campaign Manager for Tim Murray), Skip Schloming (of the Small Property Owners Association) and Joe Lazazzero from the Victory 06 Committee - representing Stephanie Nogeura.

Victory '06 Presentation - Joe Lazazzero
Joe Lazazzero was present from Victory 06 (filling in for Stephanie Noguera who had a scheduling conflict). He explained the Victory 06 Strategy for organizing by Precincts and noted a number of upcoming efforts they need help with.
Saturday (July 29) "100 Days to Victory" Phone banks being held and getting the organization solidified and motivated. He also ran through a list of Somerville Events. He brought sign up sheets to the meeting for people to sign up to canvas or to be Precinct Captains. (See attached lists of Precincts that still need captains and the Somerville Events.
Joe noted that it was 1986 when we last had a Democrat as Governor, drawing laughs when he noted that he was 20 yrs old and had therefore never experienced a Democratic Governor.
A list of Somerville Events was also distributed. These include:
 Somerville Victory'06 Cookout and Potluck July 27th 6:30 - 8:30 Hosted by Nancy Wollenburg and Helen Corrigan, 48 Irving Street, RSVP to Nancy Wollenburg at Nancyj6350@aol.com

 Somerville Victory'06 Breakfast and Canvass July 29th 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Hosted by Joe Beckmann, 22 Stone Ave. Breakfast 9:00 - 9:45. Canvass begins at 10:00. RSVP Joe Beckmann, 617-625-9369.

 Somerville Victory'06 Phone Bank July 29th 11:00 am - 1:00 pm at Carl Sciortino's Campaign HQ at 78A Cameron Avenue near Davis & Teele Square. Katie Wallace will be supervising the phone bank. RSVP to Katie Wallace at katewallace@att.net 617-461-4605 or Stephanie Noguera at snoguera@massvictory06.org 617-776-2676.
Todd Kaplan noted that the largest growing group of voters is unenrolled, and asked how we would reverse this.
Joe said that Stephanie is pushing to see how many Dems we can turn out for the election. We need to cancel out votes from the Republican enclaves. Identifying unenrolled voters that could be counted on to vote Democratic is another priority.
Ellen noted the issue of getting some neighborhoods together in areas where there are large numbers of newcomers.
Alex noted that the independents on his street are ticked off at the Party leaders and don't want to be considered Democrats.
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Presentation by Joe O'Brien on behalf of Tim Murray, Lt. Gov Candidate
Joe O'Brien (campaign manager for Tim Murray) was present to talk about his candidate. Tim is sorry not to have met with us personally but scheduling didn't allow. He knows of PDS from Carl's campaign and is aware of how successful we've been with other campaigns (referring to PDS co-founder Rebecca.Gewirtz who was present).
He went on to give us a brief bio of Tim Murray. He has been Mayor of Worcester for two terms (the youngest mayor in the city's history).
Joe noted that their campaign sometimes has the difficulty that Tim is not viewed as Progressive in some circles. He promised to make the case that Tim Murray was the most progressive candidate - and went on to list a number of reasons.
Joe noted that Worcester is a conservative city in which Tim has pushed forward progressive issues, including gay marriage. He's been a leader on environmental issues such as the task force on renewable energy, commitments to meet energy conservation goals. Murray is President of Mass Brownfields Association.
Healthcare. Tim strongly supports Universal Healthcare and Health Care for All. Supports school based health centers. Doubled the number in city during his tenure...and they serve families after schools are closed.
Education - leader for funding for urban school systems, after school programs, have tripled ESL and GED programs despite budget issues during his tenure as mayor.
Transportation - Supports commuter rail and mass transit. Led an effort to double commuter rail trips to Worcester.
Immigrant rights - Tim supported in state tuition bill.
Being supported by: Cong. McGovern, Sen. Pam Resor, 200 elected officials, more labor endorsements than any candidate for any statewide constitutional officer.
Why Murray? He can help the ticket win. Joe noted the strength of Tim's Convention win - 24 senate districts. Has a strong organization, and can mobilize organized labor, mayors, etc. He also talked about the importance of a Democratic win in Central Mass where Tim has a strong organization.
Questions from PDS members:
Ellen Q: We've been waiting 20 years for the Green Line extension - What is Tim's position on Green Line
Yes.....clearly important. Supports strongly.
Fred Q: City of Worcester has refused to apply for funding for housing for the homeless. Why?
Tim's first job was working with Homeless folks. Task force of agency providers met to create a voluntary sitting policy. He offered to get back to Fred about the specific federal programs.
Greg Q: Reconcile his environmental record with the opposition to the Cape Wind project
Joe said he thinks that all the candidates are struggling with this issue...he thinks that there is some funding and process issues.
Ofer Q: Two biggest cities in the state, including Worcester wouldn't vote against the Patriot Act...Tim Murray was instrumental in stopping the council from considering it. Why?
Joe explained that the Worcester City Council has a policy of not taking votes on matters that are not "directly related to council business". He said that this was not the only issue of this type where the council didn't take a vote on something not within its purview.
Will Q: What are Tim's priority issues?
First is Local aid. Believes that RE taxes are regressive, and opposes income tax rollback.
Lawrence Q: Given the stated large number of endorsements has it translated into fundraising?
Joe noted they had $382K as of end of month but have spent on field infrastructure. They've lead all others in fundraising. They're looking to mobilizing the groups that endorsed him, and have a field organization in place.
While it was clear that questions could have gone on longer, and as several PDS members noted during the question period, Joe was an excellent and articulate representative for his candidate, Katie broke in to note that time had expired for this portion of the meeting. Katie thanked Joe for coming.
Joe asked about the endorsement process and Katie explained that with three Lt. Governor candidates and the high threshold PDS has for endorsements, it seemed unlikely that any one would get enough votes for an endorsement, but that after the primary PDS would be working hard for the nominee of the party.
Katie provided copies of handouts about Tim Murray and the other candidates for Lt. Governor and noted that there would be an endorsement vote later in the meeting.

Condo Conversion Ordinance Discussion

Katie opened this topic by explaining that representatives of both those in favor of the proposed ordinance and those opposed would speak.

Todd Kaplan, a PDS member who represents low income tenants as an attorney with Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services will speak in favor of the ordinance

Skip Schloming, Executive Director and founder of the Small Property Owners Association will speak in opposition to the ordinance.

Fred explained that there would be three similar questions asked of each side and began the discussion.


Why is/isn't there a need for this legislation?

Todd:
Both State law and Local Ordinances exist, but local ordinance is full of loopholes. 113 condos are now on the market over priced at more than $400K and another 193 under $400K.

Every condo represents a diminishing of rental units available. This ordinance will not stop people from converting...it will just conform benefits to state law.

Skip:
The question to be asked is whether the ordinance will make condo conversions work or not? Only Somerville's ordinance would cover 2 and 3 family properties.

What his members are most concerned about are the new eviction provisions they believe that they are back door rent control.

What should the legislation Accomplish/ What problems would it create?

Todd:
As it is, it protects tenants. Now it is 1 or 2 years protection. The new ordinance would be 2 and 4 years notice. Todd said that he believed that tenants would receive better notification and information. He cited examples of landlords that are engaging in activities that push tenants out the door. Ordinance also increases tenant relocation fees from $300 to $1,000

Skip:

Increasing the number of years is a huge issue for his members (especially at 4 years). He distributed a table of what 80% of median income covers - the group to be protected as "low income" and noted that few tenants would not qualify for the longer notification.

Rent Control part "rebuttable presumption" language re: rent increases. This applies to any eviction where a claim is made that there has been an "unreasonable" increase.

How would advocates address the objections of opponents or vice versa?

Todd:
Opponents are stressing this rebuttable presumption issue....and he thinks that portion of the ordinance could be left out without affecting the ordinance....because most tenants are not represented by counsel. Ordinance would be fine without it. The intent to protect tenants with proper notice sufficient notification time


Skip:
The real legitimate concerns being expressed can be dealt with by "tweaking" the existing ordinance.

SPOA would also want to keep the shorter notification periods. The notification period for the tenants most targeted for protection would wind up being the notification period for everyone in the building.

Questions from PDS:

Katie Q - why does Somerville need its own ordinance rather than just using the state law? If the current ordinance isn't being enforced why will changing it help?

Todd:
State law does not have a permitting or administrative process spelled out. In Somerville you have to apply for a permit and show that you have provided notice. Currently there is no enforcement of this. This is a huge loophole. You could empty the building and sell it to a developer who could apply and say that this building is empty.

The Affordable Housing Organizing Committee has requested that changes to the proposed ordinance be made but as yet the Mayor has not done so..

Skip:
What about a landlord that gets rid of tenants first and then does a conversion. He suggested that there would be another way to achieve that goal. Process must allow for condo conversion, not make it impossible.

Andy Q - If the eviction section went away (to Skip) would that resolve the whole "back door rent control" issue?

Skip - That would solve some of it, but there is a section regarding rent increases during the notice period as well, and it doesn't require 4 years for tenants to find new housing. ...."Someone pays"

Mike G Q: The current environment is to take every rental unit on a given street and try to turn it into $400K condos. He's distressed that elderly and disabled tenants are not given more consideration.

Katie thanked Todd and Skip for their presentations, and particularly thanked Skip for coming to the meeting with about three hour notice after the originally scheduled speaker had to cancel.

Endorsement Discussion for Lt. Governor

Madison pointed out that while he's going to vote for Silbert, he doesn't think a lot of energy should be spent and we should not endorse.

Ofer echoed that all of the LG candidates were fine and that any of them would be good on the ticket. Of the three choices he feels Silbert would be best.

Todd said there was a rumor that Deval Patrick would endorse a LG candidate and he feels we should wait.

Andy said that he read in the paper that a LG candidate contacted Deval...not the other way around, and he then decided to meet with all of the candidates.

Lawrence said that we should also pay attention to LG because they could become Governor....

Mike G noted that no Democratic Governor in 50 years has left office early...

Katie said that the benefit of a PDS endorsement might be to trigger a DFA endorsement

Alex...was impressed with Tim Murray. Has a personal friend who just bought in Worcester and likes Murray. Thinks Deval and Murray would be an interesting ticket.

Andy said although LG is not a big race, he's a strong Tim Murray supporter. He thinks that the Central Mass Base, the field organization will be important. He also said that Deval is a good progressive but he has a couple of black eyes in his resume. He thinks that Murray is progressive.

Ellen - At the last meeting when we decided to support a vote and later had second thoughts. Think we should strategically be thinking about the Governors race.

Fred will be voting for Silbert but also thinks we should not endorse. Calling for more local aid is a safe strategy issue on Murray's part, but Fred's not convinced he's progressive.

Katie then called for a vote. The choices were to vote to endorse one of the three candidates (Goldberg, Murray, or Silbert) or vote to do No Endorsement. Ballots were completed and collected to be counted while the meeting continued.

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Announcements -

Learn your rights forum at the Welcome Project. (Katie)
Have you ever been stopped by police while driving? Or had officers knock on your door? The Human Rights Commission is sponsoring a workshop on your rights and responsibilities when dealing with police.
Date: Thursday, July 27, 2006
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Mystic Activity Center, 530 Mystic Ave #103

Fred noted that PDS would have a table at the Welcome Project annual Picnic on August 22.

Katie announced that Tim Toomey would be at the August Meeting and it will be held at the Stop & Shop Community Room in East Somerville.

Ellen - Wednesday 8/2 there is another comment period related to the Green Line project. Notice will be in the paper Thursday....STEP will send out more info.

STEP is sponsoring a bus survey. About to launch Spanish, Portuguese and French versions. Want both bus riders and those who don't ride to respond.

LG Endorsement Results

When tallied up, the result of the vote was to Not Endorse in the Lt. Governor's race.

Plus Delta and Adjournment:

The meeting adjourned at 9:08.

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Location: Somerville, MA 02144